In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system, detecting in an alien planet’s atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes.
That means they’d be even worse off than us in any attempts to go spacefaring, right?
Well a rocket only system is right out.
But… There’s certainly still potential for a hybrid system. You can get real high up with balloons, once above the thickest atmosphere rockets work a lot better.
Also, depending on the atmosphere, aircraft could be very effective, you might be able to accelerate to great speeds on jet engines, and then have a second stage based on chemical rockets.
But for the most part, yeah, getting to space on a planet that massive would be an absolute pain in the ass. No simple task.
At that gravitational acceleration level, chemical rockets would be incapable of escaping the gravity well. They might have to create an Orion Drive just to get off the planet.
Pretty much, yeah.